A SEVERED HEAD - LE

Dick Clement followed the success of his first feature Otley with this wry adaptation of Iris Murdoch’s celebrated 1961 satirical novel, a harbinger of the sexual liberation that was to blossom in the mid-60s.

A Severed Head chronicles the sexual and amoral escapades of a group of middle-class, middle-aged London couples, portrayed by a wonderful cast which includes Ian Holm (Alien, The Lord of the Rings), Lee Remick (Days of Wine and Roses, The Omen), Claire Bloom (The Haunting, The King’s Speech) and Richard Attenborough (10 Rillington Place, Young Winston). Absurdist and delightfully funny, A Severed Head is a dark satire staged with wit and intelligence.

Guise and Dolls (2019, 8 mins): artist and sculptor Saskia de Boerdiscusses the figurines she created for the film’s arresting title sequence

Slightly Saucy (2019, 7 mins): production manager Timothy Burrill recalls the making of A Severed Head

What Happened Just Then? (2019, 19 mins): an appreciation by comedian, musician, and writer Rob Deering

Original theatrical trailer

Image gallery: original promotional materials

New and improved English subtitlesfor the deaf and hard-of-hearing

Limited edition exclusive 32-page booklet with a new essay by Pamela Hutchinson, archival interviews with the cast, an account of the film’s transition from page to stage to cinema screen, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits